Frequently Asked Questions

What is OpenProninx?

It is the FNU/OpenProninx continuation of PRONINX: a native x86-64 operating system under active development with a self-contained boot path (dual BIOS & UEFI), kernel, 4 Virtual Terminals, userspace, and QEMU/bare-metal images.

Is it ready for production?

No. Core 0.1.6-dev is a development baseline. Networking is functional (Intel E1000/VirtIO-Net + lwIP) but not hardened. It is not suitable for confidential data or exposure to an untrusted network.

Is OpenProninx Linux or a BSD distribution?

No. It is its own operating-system project. It uses selected third-party components behind defined adaptation boundaries and retains its own kernel and userspace.

Which license applies?

The repository is distributed under the BSD 3-Clause License. Imported third-party code retains its own notices and provenance records.

Can I run it on physical hardware?

OpenProninx uses QEMU as its reference test platform and supports bare-metal booting via both legacy BIOS (with GPT parsing, A20, VBE/EDID, coreboot tables) and modern UEFI (GOP framebuffer). It includes PCI drivers for AHCI SATA, NVMe 1.4, Intel E1000, and runtime video mode switching via real-mode thunking.

Does it support networking or SSH?

Networking is functional in Core 0.1.6-dev: Intel E1000 and VirtIO-Net drivers with lwIP (DHCP, DNS, ICMP, UDP, TCP) are integrated. SSH is not implemented. Do not treat the system as a secure networked host.

What filesystem does it use?

The boot image uses a hybrid GPT layout (ESP, fnu-boot, fnu-root) where the userspace root filesystem is passed as a bootloader module. UFS2/FFS is available as an optional data volume mounted at /data.

How do I get the source?

Visit the OpenProninx GitHub mirror.